Journal profile · Earth and Planetary Sciences-Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology
Geothermal Energy
ISSN 2195-9706 · Springer Berlin Heidelberg · United States · Founded 2013
Geothermal Energy: CAS Zone 3 · Earth Sciences (2025 upgraded edition); impact factor 4.78; fully open access; APC about USD 1,990; median 161 days to acceptance (86 articles, last 24 months); 48 articles in 2025; indexed in SCIE and Scopus.
Scope
Aims, scope and focus
Geothermal Energy is published by Springer Berlin Heidelberg and is in Zone 3 of Earth Sciences in the CAS Journal Ranking (2025 upgraded edition). By OpenAlex counts of its recent articles, its largest topics are Geothermal Energy Systems and Applications, CO2 Sequestration and Geologic Interactions and Groundwater flow and contamination studies, together about 42% of its articles. Its main subfields are Geophysics. (generated from OpenAlex topic counts and CAS ranking data)
Geothermal Energy – Science, Society and Technology focuses on fundamental and applied research needed to deploy technologies for developing and integrating geothermal energy as one key element in the future energy portfolio. Contributions include geological, geophysical, and geochemical studies, exploration of geothermal fields, reservoir characterization and modeling, development of productivity-enhancing methods, and approaches to achieve robust and economic plant operation. Geothermal Energy – Science, Society and Technology serves to examine the interaction of individual system components while taking the whole process into account, from the development of the reservoir to the economic provision of geothermal energy.
From the journal's Aims & Scope
Research area (LetPub): Earth and Planetary Sciences-Geotechnical Engineering and Engineering Geology
Editor-in-chief Horst RüterPublisher website
Editorial board by country: 5 in mainland China (about 11%); most named Germany 13, Mainland China 5, United States 5, Mexico 4, Japan 2 (47 members with a country) Editorial board ↗Publisher website ·
Main research topics OpenAlex counts of recent articles; shares are approximate
- Geothermal Energy Systems and ApplicationsEnergy22.2%
- CO2 Sequestration and Geologic InteractionsEnvironmental Science12.1%
- Groundwater flow and contamination studiesEnvironmental Science7.7%
- Hydrocarbon exploration and reservoir analysisEngineering7.4%
- Geological and Geochemical AnalysisEarth and Planetary Sciences5.1%
- Hydraulic Fracturing and Reservoir AnalysisEngineering5%
- earthquake and tectonic studiesEarth and Planetary Sciences4.2%
- Reservoir Engineering and Simulation MethodsEngineering4%
Rankings & indexing
CAS ranking and database indexing
CAS Journal Ranking
CAS Journal Ranking, upgraded edition (March 2025)Earth Sciences Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Earth Sciences | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Energy & Fuels | Zone 4 |
| Minor | Geosciences, Multidisciplinary | Zone 4 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
CAS Xinrui Journal Ranking (March 2026)Earth Sciences Zone 3
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Earth Sciences | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Energy & Fuels | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Geosciences, Multidisciplinary | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: not marked
CAS Journal Ranking, previous upgraded edition (December 2023)Earth Sciences Zone 2
| Level | Category | Zone |
|---|---|---|
| Major | Earth Sciences | Zone 2 |
| Minor | Energy & Fuels | Zone 3 |
| Minor | Geosciences, Multidisciplinary | Zone 3 |
Top journal: noReview journal: no
Database indexing
SCIEScopusDOAJLetPub
International journal early-warning lists: not listed in any editionLetPub
Indexing the journal's website claims
EI CompendexCASCurrent ContentsPublisher website
Other: Google Scholar, EBSCO, ProQuest, Dimensions, CNKI, Baidu, Astrophysics Data System, Naver, OCLC, Portico, CLOCKSS, Semantic Scholar
As the journal's website lists them, not checked against each database; for Web of Science editions the records above apply.
Editions, and major and minor categories, are shown separately and never merged into one zone; check which edition your institution uses before you submit or report.
Metrics
Impact metrics and publication volume
Impact
- Impact factor
- 4.78LetPub ·
- Impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 4.7Publisher website ·
- 5-year impact factor (publisher) 2025
- 5.1Publisher website ·
- CiteScore 2026-06
- 6.5LetPub ·
- SJR 2026-06
- 1.01LetPub ·
- SNIP 2026-06
- 1.91LetPub ·
- h-index
- 49OpenAlex ·
- i10-index
- 243OpenAlex ·
- 2-year mean citedness
- 5.15OpenAlex ·
- Self-citation rate
- 4.3%LetPub ·
- Share of gold OA articles
- 99.19%LetPub ·
Volume
- Articles per year
- 46LetPub ·
- Downloads per year (publisher) 2025
- 532,100Publisher website ·
Articles by year OpenAlex count · 555 in total · the current year is incomplete
| Year | Articles | Open access | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 54 | 54 | 5 |
| 2025 | 48 | 48 | 164 |
| 2024 | 48 | 48 | 603 |
| 2023 | 37 | 37 | 343 |
| 2022 | 45 | 45 | 637 |
| 2021 | 49 | 49 | 690 |
Sources count differently and were observed at different times, so each source's own value is kept; "publisher" marks figures from the journal's website.
Review & acceptance
Review time and acceptance
Review time from article dates manuscript dates registered with Crossref · to
161 daysMedian, submission to acceptance · P25–P75 112 days – 234 days
- Acceptance to online
- median 21 days (86 articles)
- Submission to online
- median 192 days
- Sample
- 86 articles with submission and acceptance dates (93 in the window); the latest was accepted on
Only articles that were accepted and published are counted, not the time spent on rejected manuscripts, so this usually runs longer than a publisher's "time to first decision".
Other sources
- Average review time (community reports)
- about 8 weeksLetPub ·
- Submission to first decision
- 12 daysPublisher website ·
- Submission to publication (journal-reported)
- about 8 weeksDOAJ ·
- Peer review
- Single anonymous peer reviewDOAJ
Community reports come from authors' own submissions (confidence 0.5) and are not a promise from the journal; for publisher figures, the journal's own definitions apply.
Fees & open access
APC and open-access policy
Fully open accessDOAJ
Every article is open access; authors usually pay an article processing charge (APC).
| Source | APC | Fee waiver | License | Observed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOAJ | GBP 1,490 / USD 1,990 / EUR 1,790 | Yes | CC BY | |
| OpenAlex | USD 2,090 / EUR 1,890 / GBP 1,590 | — | — | |
| LetPub | GBP 1,490 / USD 1,990 / EUR 1,790 | Yes | — | |
| Publisher website | GBP 1,490 / USD 1,990 / EUR 1,790 | — | — |
The journal's website is authoritative for fees; sources were observed at different times and each keeps its own value, without averaging.
Submission
Article types and submission policies (journal website)
What to prepare3 items from the author guidelines
- Reference style
- Vancouver
- Templates
- LaTeX and Word
- Suggested reviewers
- Optional
Article types accepted6
- analysisResearch Article Debate Review Software Article Analysis MethodologyLength not stated
- debateResearch Article Debate Review Software Article Analysis MethodologyLength not stated
- methodologyResearch Article Debate Review Software Article Analysis MethodologyLength not stated
- research articleResearch Article Debate Review Software Article Analysis MethodologyLength not stated
- reviewResearch Article Debate Review Software Article Analysis MethodologyLength not stated
- software articleResearch Article Debate Review Software Article Analysis MethodologyLength not stated
Policy excerpts from the journal's websiteAuthorship, Data availability, License & copyright, Open access, Peer review
- Authorship
Manuscript must be submitted by an author, not a third party. Model summary
Please note that a manuscript can only be submitted by an author of the manuscript and may not be submitted by a third party.
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Data availability Formatting the 'Availability of data and materials' section of your manuscript
Data sharing strongly encouraged or required. Model summary
The following format for the 'Availability of data and materials section of your manuscript should be used:
Source ↗Publisher website ·- License & copyright Licensing and copyright
CC BY licence (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence) Model summary
Creative Commons licences Open access articles in Springer Nature journals are published under Creative Commons licences. These provide an industry-standard framework to support easy re-use of open access material. Under Creative Commons licences, authors retain copyright of their articles. Geothermal Energy articles are published open access under a CC BY licence (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Open access Benefits of open access
Publishing open access (OA) offers a number of benefits, including greater reach and readership for your work: Cited more 1.6x more citations of OA articles than non-OA articles across all subjects Downloaded more 4x more downloads of OA articles than non-OA articles Greater impact 2.5x more Altmetric attention. OA articles attracted 1.9x more news mentions and 1.2x more policy mentions Open acces…
Source ↗Publisher website ·- Peer review Peer review policy
Peer review is the process used to evaluate the quality of a manuscript before publication. Independent researchers in the relevant field assess submitted manuscripts to check their validity and robustness. Their feedback guides editors in making publication decisions. Typically, two or more experts evaluate each manuscript based on three main criteria: scientific robustness: is the research metho…
Source ↗Publisher website ·
Excerpts are quoted from the journal's website; "model summary" lines are written by Workers AI and checked against the text. The journal's website is authoritative.
Profile
Publication details and official links
- Publisher
- Springer Berlin Heidelberg
- Country or region
- United States
- Language
- English
- Founded
- 2013
- ISSN
- 2195-9706
- Official links
- Journal homepage ↗DOAJ
- Submission system ↗Publisher website
- Author guidelines ↗LetPub
- Aims & Scope ↗LetPub
- Special issues ↗Publisher website
- APC information ↗DOAJ
- Fee waivers ↗DOAJ
- Open access statement ↗DOAJ
- License & copyright ↗DOAJ
- Peer review process ↗LetPub
- Editorial board ↗LetPub
- Plagiarism policy ↗DOAJ
FAQ
Frequently asked questions about Geothermal Energy
What CAS zone is Geothermal Energy in?
In the 2025 upgraded edition of the CAS Journal Ranking, Geothermal Energy is in Zone 3 of Earth Sciences, and in Zone 4 of the minor category Energy & Fuels / Geosciences, Multidisciplinary. In the 2026 Xinrui edition it is in Zone 3 of Earth Sciences. Zones from different editions, and from major and minor categories, are not interchangeable.
What is the impact factor of Geothermal Energy?
The latest impact factor listed by LetPub is 4.78; CiteScore 6.5, h-index 49.
How long does peer review take at Geothermal Energy?
Based on the dates recorded on 86 articles published between October 2024 and October 2026 (the last 24 months), the median time from submission to acceptance is 161 days (interquartile range 112–234 days); authors report an average review time of about 8 weeks. Article statistics cover accepted papers only, publisher figures follow the journal's own definitions, and community reports come from authors' own submissions; none is a promise from the journal.
What are the manuscript requirements of Geothermal Energy?
According to the journal's author guidelines: Reference style: Vancouver; Templates: LaTeX and Word; Suggested reviewers: Optional. A model extracted these from the author guidelines and each was checked against the text; check the latest version on the journal's website before submitting.
Where are the editorial board members of Geothermal Energy based?
Of the 47 board members whose country the journal's board page names, 5 (about 11%) are in mainland China; the countries named most often are Germany (13), Mainland China (5) and United States (5). Counted from the institutions listed on the board page; for reference only.
Which databases index Geothermal Energy?
According to LetPub and DOAJ records, Geothermal Energy is indexed in SCIE, Scopus and DOAJ. The journal's website also lists EI Compendex, CAS and Current Contents; that list has not been checked against each database.
Is Geothermal Energy open access, and what is the APC?
Geothermal Energy is a fully open-access journal. APC about USD 1,990.
Sources and updates
The facts on this page come from LetPub, OpenAlex, DOAJ, Publisher website; every figure is tagged with its source and the date it was observed, and conflicting values are kept per source. LetPub source page: view ↗ (archived 2026-08-26). Last updated: .